I think one thing that really gets me about Brennan, in a good way, is that the way he speaks is the way I speak when I'm not masking. It's hard to listen to him sometimes because he'll say something in such a specific way and my whole body will cringe a little because OMG we learned forever ago you can't talk like that, the other kids will pounce immediately. He's a little too intense. A little too loud. A little slower to switch between modes and mindsets. He uses rich language in a setting we've come to expect a certain script for, the classic DM blend of conversational and directive. Brennan is just a little different and he's different in a way I recognize. And seeing the cast welcome him so completely, him being in the driver's seat even, high intensity and all... It's nice. I don't know if he's autistic/adhd or not, but I am. And it took me a few minutes to figure out the push-pull of my interest versus my flinch, but the fact is that if I can dig past my years of learning to hide my enthusiasm and flair to better match the speaking tone of people around me, one day I might also craft a story with my voice that has people spellbound like that. Part of my recollection that what he does is a skill I can learn has to do with listening to him and hearing my own old voice.

The man regularly speaks up during games and conversation with fun trivia and that intense stare and he's never viewed as disruptive or in bad faith just for knowing things and sharing them. I've forgotten what that's like, to not bite those comments back before they come out - let alone have them taken in stride or even enjoyed. I've forgotten the joy of being the kid in class who would have one hundred percent raised their hand and asked how invisibility would work in theory if retinas and pupils were also transparent.

Idk it was just unexpectedly really neat to feel something click watching him. I've seen him as a player but not as a DM outside of gifs.